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Creative Freelancing is a Big Pile of Hats

When you work for yourself you have to do everything; from your actual creative work to fixing the computer, dealing with finances and keeping clients happy. You have to wear many different hats.

On a good day this makes life exciting and full of variety. Being able to put down one task and pick up something totally different means things never get boring and no day is ever the same. Learning new skills is rewarding – who knew you were good at writing press releases and finding the best price for printer cartridges!? Being able to celebrate successes knowing that every little bit was because of you is an amazing feeling.

However, on a bad day those hats get pretty heavy, and some of them you actively hate. When everything on your list is urgent and none of them are the creative work that you actually want to do it can be frustrating. Instead your day will revolve around chasing late payment, spending stupid sums of money on a computer because your old one decided it hates you and having to make a tough phone call to a difficult client. These days usually end with a glass of wine, or three.

You can of course give some of your hats to other people and sooner or later you realise that this is vital to maintain some degree of sanity. Just make sure you give away the hats that don’t suit you and keep the ones you love!

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Creative Life is a series of illustrations documenting my experience of being a creative freelancer and working from home. The good and the bad.